I’ll never be able to lie in bed for three and a half hours without falling asleep, so I set the alarm on my watch and pray that nobody else hears it. I guess I doze off with my finger near the snooze button, because the alarm doesn’t even sound a full beep before I shut it off and jump out of bed. I am instantly awake and within minutes fully dressed. I arrange the pillows under the blankets to look like a body, and then I’m gone. The sneaking-out part is easy. My room is in the basement, and there’s a door leading out to the carport. At Broadmead, Chris is waiting in the bushes. I’m not expecting him to be there, so when he jumps out, I nearly pee my pants. We head onto Quadra Street, a straight route into town. During the day, it’s a really busy road. Now it’s so dead, I’m wondering if Victoria has been taken over by aliens and all the people have been beamed up into space. The streets are so empty, we don’t even bother stopping at traffic lights. But we keep an eye out for cars.
